Simulation of violent water flows over a movable bed using smoothed particle hydrodynamics

Abstract

The interaction between bed-load sediment and water flow is an important topic of great concern which should be modeled for a wide range of hydrodynamic systems such as sea, rivers and estuaries. In this paper, smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) is utilized for the simulation of dam-break propagation over an erodible bed and sediment distribution beneath the steady water flow. The proposed model describes both fluid and sediment particles as weakly compressible flow where the sediment is treated as a non-Newtonian fluid using Bingham–Cross model coupled with Newtonian treat (Owen’s relation) at interface. To cope with the difficulties arisen from different densities, the continuity and momentum equations are rather modified so that the interactions between the sediment and water are accurately modeled. First, the model is used to simulate the five dam-break models with PVC and sand bed materials and then the bed-load sediment transportation is considered for both Meyer-Peter and Einstein formulations. Comparisons are then made with the available experimental data indicating that the defined SPH model provides sensible predications for all given test cases.